Belayneh et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2012, 8:42 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/8/1/42 JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY AND ETHNOMEDICINE RESEARCH Open Access Medicinal plants potential and use by pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Erer Valley of Babile Wereda, Eastern Ethiopia Anteneh Belayneh1*, Zemede Asfaw2, Sebsebe Demissew2 and Negussie F Bussa3 Abstract Background: Ethiopian plants have shown remarkably effective medicinal values for many human and livestock ailments. Some research results are found on medicinal plants of the south, south west, central, north and north western parts of Ethiopia. However, there is lack of data that quantitatively assesses the resource potential and the indigenous knowledge on use and management of medicinal plants in eastern Ethiopia. The main thrust of the present ethnobotanical study centres around the potential and use of traditional medicinal plants by pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Babile Wereda (district) of eastern Ethiopia. The results can be used for setting up of conservation priorities, preservation of local biocultural knowledge with sustainable use and development of the resource. Materials and methods: Fifty systematically selected informants including fifteen traditional herbalists (as key informants) participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews, discussions and guided field walk constituted the main data collection methods. Techniques of preference ranking, factor of informant consensus and Spearman rank correlation test were employed in data analysis. Medicinal plant specimens were collected, identified and kept at the National Herbarium (ETH) of Addis Ababa University and Haramaya University Herbarium. Results: Fifty-one traditional medicinal plant species in 39 genera and 28 families were recorded, constituting 37% shrubs, 29% trees, 26% herbs, 6% climbers and 2% root parasites. Leaves contributed to 35.3% of the preparations, roots (18.8%) and lower proportions for other parts. Formulations recorded added to 133 remedies for 54 human ailments, in addition to some used in vector control. The majority of remedies were the juice of single species, mixtures being generally infrequent. Aloe pirottae, Azadirachta indica and Hydnora johannis were the most cited and preferred species. Aloe pirottae, a species endemic to Ethiopia, is valued as a remedy for malaria, tropical ulcer, gastro-intestinal parasites, gallstone, eye diseases and snake bite. The jel extracted from dried and ground plant material, called SIBRI (Oromo language), was acclaimed as a cleaner of the human colon. Concoction made from leaf, seed and flower of Azadirachta indica was given for treatment of malaria, fungal infections and intestinal worms. Root preparations from Hydnora johannis were prescribed as remedy for diarrhoea, haemorrhage, wound and painful body swelling, locally called GOFLA (Oromo language). Conclusions: The study documented many well known and effective medicinal species of relevance for human healthcare, including for the treatment of malaria which is rampant in the area as it is in many parts of Ethiopia. This underscores the importance of the traditional medicinal plants for the people living in the area and the potential of the resource for development. Consequently, the study area deserves urgent conservation priority coupled with mechanisms for the protection of the associated indigenous medical lore as well as development and effective use of the medicinal plant resource. Keywords: Babile, Erer Valley, Ethnomedicinal plants, Pastoralists, Agro-pastoralists, Eastern Ethiopia * Correspondence: [email protected] 1Biology Department, Haramaya University, P.O. Box 282, Haramaya, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2012 Belayneh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Belayneh et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2012, 8:42 Page 2 of 11 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/8/1/42 Introduction area. Given the diversity of higher plant species in the area, Ethiopian plants have shown remarkably effective medi- about 238 species documented from the Erer Valley [19], cinal values for many ailments that affect people and live- the share of medicinal plants and the value of the asso- stock. Knowledge of the medicinal plants of Ethiopia and ciated indigenous knowledge of the pastoral and agro- of their uses provides a vital contribution to human and pastoral communities is expected to be high. livestock healthcare needs throughout the country [1-5]. However, the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities About 80% of the Ethiopian population is said to depend in this area have remained ethnobotanically unexplored on traditional medicine for their healthcare delivery and and there is no comprehensive account of the traditional most of this comes from plants [6]. Medicinal plants found medicinal practices. Therefore, the objective of this intheEthiopianflorawereatonetimeestimatedtobe study was to (1) assess and document the medicinal over 700 species [7] while in a later communication [8] plant potential; (2) investigate and gather information on about 1000 identified species were included. About 300 of indigenous knowledge and use of medicinal plants by the traditional medicinal plant species of Ethiopia are fre- the local communities; (3) indicate the possible ways for quently mentioned in many sources [4,8-13]. Many other implementation of proper management, conservation medicinal plant of Ethiopia mainly found in lesser studied and sustainable use of the medicinal plants and the nat- areas still awaits scientific studies. ural vegetation of the study area. A review of the main sources shows that studies on medicinal plants of Ethiopia have so far concentrated in Materials and methods the south, southwest, central, north and north western Study area parts of the country [1-4,6,8,10,13-17]. Data that quanti- The study area, Erer Valley (upper Erer and lower Erer) tatively assess the resource potential, indigenous know- of Babile Wereda in the eastern lowlands of Ethiopia, is ledge on the use and management of medicinal plant situated at the semi-arid trans-boundary of Oromia and species from eastern Ethiopia and specifically from the Harari Regions, located at about 560 km southeast of present study area are lacking. The pastoral and agro- Addis Ababa. It is delimited with coordinates of latitudes pastoral communities of Ethiopia are largely found in the 08o22'20" - 09o30'30"N and longitudes 42o20'10" - eastern, south eastern and north eastern parts of the coun- 42o30'50"E and its elevation ranges between 940 m and try, i. e. the Somali, Oromo and Afar pastoralists consti- 1585 m a.s.l. (Figure 1). The lower Erer valley is part of tute 87 percent of the total pastoralist population in the protected area for the African elephant (Loxodonta Ethiopia [18]. The traditional medicinal plant lore and africana) known as Babile Elephant Sanctuary (BES). potentials have not been investigated to a noticeable level. There is a high degree of competition for space and food Similar to many other rural communities in Ethiopia, the between elephants and large herds of cattle and camels in use of traditional medicinal plants plays a vital role in the area [19]. There is also an indication of the population human and livestock healthcare systems in the pastoral increment in the last 15 or more years, resulting in a high and agro-pastoral communities of Babile and its surround- density of human settlement in the Erer Valley. The ings. This is so because modern health services, which are human population in the rural part of Babile Wereda (dis- mostly unaffordable to most people, are also very limited trict), which mostly covers the Erer Valley, is about 75,970 in their coverage while on the other hand there is general (38,371 males and 37,599 females) [20]. acceptance of the traditional herbal medical system by the The vegetation of the valley belongs to the Acacia- community. As the local communities encounter cultural Commiphora woodland, semi-desert scrubland and ever- changes due to the current development activities in areas green scrub types. There are also riverine woody species where these communities reside, unless the plants are in the upper Erer Valley that include species of Acacia conserved and the ethnomedicinal knowledge is docu- robusta Burch., Tamarindus indica L., Oncoba spinosa mented, both the medicinal plants and the associated indi- Forssk., Acokanthera schimperi (A. DC.) Schweinf. and genous knowledge of the people could vanish forever. Capparis tomentosa Lam. [21]. The Oromo and the Somali people living in the upper The mean annual temperature is about 18.2°C, ranging and lower Erer Valley of the Babile Wereda (district) are from a mean minimum of 10.8°C to mean maximum of expected to be the custodians of valuable indigenous 29.4°C. There is only a slight difference in temperature knowledge on the use of traditional medicinal plants of throughout the year, with the hottest months during their surroundings, which they use for treating human and April to June (maximum 29.6°C) and the coldest during livestock ailments. Access to modern health services for October to December (minimum 8.2°C). The mean an- both humans and livestock is very limited. The dependence nual rainfall is 712.6 mm year-1, with high variation from of the local medical system on the use of traditional medi- year to year, ranging from 462.6 mm to 1210.4 mm year-1. cinal plants could partly be attributed to the underdevel- Rainfall is bimodal, occurring from February to April oped nature of the modern medical system in the general (short rain season) and June to September (long rain Belayneh et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2012, 8:42 Page 3 of 11 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/8/1/42 Figure 1 Location map of the study area.